Effects of a Titan
by greeneman42
Summary: A small salvage ship comes across an interesting find while searching. Set before Halo 4 and before ME 2


_This is my second fic, first outside of a fantasy realm. For the Most part these are just an excuse for me to put pen to paper, so to speak. but any constructive criticism is welcome. Any deconstruction criticism will be laughed at and ignored. _

The ISV Quiet Repose shuddered as she snapped out of the relay corridor in the Shrike Abyssal. The lane of matterless space closed behind it as the small vessel soared way from the Mass Relay, a massive unmanned space-station. The relays were relics left over from the Protheans, an ancient, extinct spacefaring empire. The relays connected the galaxy, allowing ships to travel in hours distances that would take years under their own power, even with FTL capabilities. The Turian captain of the Quiet Repose stared silently from the bridge as she cleared the arms of the relay, two great prongs extending from the spinning rings of the element zero core in the center of the relay. Most salvage ships didn't spend a lot of time in this area of the traverse, for good reason, but Captain Mallus was desperate.

"She's not supposed to do that, Walesh." from standing just behind the pilot's chair, Mallus' Turian dual harmonics filled the room, only just wider than Mallus' outstretched arms. he was told other species found turian voices unnerving sometimes.

"Wouldn't, if proper stabilizers in place, told you we needed them." the Salarian said in short clipped words, absently fiddling with the holographic instruments with one hand and rubbing the two cranial horns protruding from the crown of his head. He may not be the greatest conversationalist, but the amphibian could fly the Quiet Repose in his sleep.

Mallus' retort was interrupted by Zolal, the XO, briefly ducking into the bridge. A old friend from the turian military, Zolal had saved Mallus's life more times than he could count, and she would say the same of him. When Mallus retired and started a salvage operation, she followed.

"Is she supposed to do that?" she asked, bony mandibles running off her jaw fluttered.

"of course not." Walsh said, " but don't worry, will likely not harm ship or crew. Simply anterior buffer panel missing." his words were quick and clipped, as if he didn't have time for full sentences.

Mallus' facial plates drew down "she better not crash! She crashes, you crashed her!" he pointed an accusatory talon at the salarian, the other two digits curled into a fist.

"we crashing again?" the low rumble came from outside the bridge, it sounded not unlike what a boulder would had it suddenly gained sentience. A massive shape squeezed itself into the bridge, trying to use more space than remained after Zolal entered. Janeth was a Krogan, a species known for being very good as making hostiles unhostile. Standing at well over 7 feet, and weighing what Mallus guessed was nearly eight hundred pounds, the ship's combat specialist was hard to ignore, especially in a space as small as the bridge.

Unintelligible grumbling was his answer.

"What was that boss?" Janeth said, swinging his wide, wedge shaped head and taking a step back into the doorway.

"I said if you don't let me breath i'm going to remove four of something from you. I'll let you decide if it your lungs or your…lets just say you'll have to pick between breathing or pleasurable company."

The Krogan laughed and thumped the turian captain's shoulder with a huge three fingered hand, and would have toppled him if there were room to fall. "Ha! Thats why I like you Mallus, you've got a quad." Janeth's grin was wider than Mallus' entire head. Janeth turned to leave "alright Mal, yell if we find anything to shoot. I'll be cleaning Vela." Janeth's heavy footsteps receded but didn't fade completely, he was too big and the ship far too small for the Krogan to walk around without someone noticing.

Mallus turned back to the pilot, "anything on the sensors?" he asked quietly. This was a high risk location to salvage, and Mallus wanted to get in and out as soon as possible. He was hoping the small size of the Repose would make pirates pass her over as not valuable enough. If they were lucky.

"Nothing substantial, suggest moving on to non-relay systems. less explored. Likely to find something others did n-" he cut off, something caught his attention. He shuffled through the multitude of holographic screens, swiping away the ones he did not need that the time with his omni-tool.

"You find something Wally?"

"asked you not to call me that. Have proper name, please use it" Walesh spoke without looking away from his screens, not really paying attention to what the captain had said. "Found something on radio detectors, unsure what. Could be nothing." Wally flicked his wrist and a sound played into the cockpit, garbled beyond recognition, it just sounded like background radiation to Mallus but he nodded to the Salarian, if it intrigued Wally, it was probably worth checking out. "take us closer and get a ladar ping, lets get a better look." Walesh bobbed his head, already putting the Repose on an intercept course.

Walsh's 'something' turned out to quite something indeed. "Wa-lesh" Mallus said slowly, looking at the real time ladar hologram projected into the bridge. "What exactly are we looking at?"

It looked like a ship, derelict and abandoned, Mallus could see the main thrusters. Who would just leave a ship this big? Mallus watched as it spun, drifting slowly through space, an insignia on the hull drifted into view from the shadows. It looked like a human bird, an eglel or something, wings spread and a broad ribbon clutched in it's talons. "U.N.S.C." he mumbled under his breath, pronouncing each letter individually as it was illuminated by the system's star, Xe Cha. "is this was that signal was coming from?" He asked the pilot.

"Indeed, can't tell what they're saying. Might be important."

The opposite swung into view and he gasped. Mallus knew what the signal was for. It had been cut, cleanly in two. Mallus could see the individual decks like the cross section in a book. What could do that to a ship? Looks a bit like some of the salvage from that Geth attack on the Citadel, but not quite. The battle of the Citadel's salvage had been sheared like this, as though a giant knife sliced through it. But those had been cut roughly, the exposed decks had looked like melted candle wax. This was damn near surgical.

It was a big ship, certainly military. this was only a piece and it was bigger than any frigate. Whole it had to be the size of a Cruiser at least. That meant it belonged to somebody, somebody who would come looking for it soon if it stop reporting in. Which it clearly has

"Captain? Will we board?" Walsh's quick words pulled Mallus out of his reverie.

"No, something this big has got to belong to someone, and I mean to be far away when they come looking for it." Mallus turned to leave, but Walesh piped up

"What about survivors? Could stay to help"

"Any survivors can wait until their own people come for them. How long can something like that go unnoticed by whoever owns it? they'll be fine." Mallus said. They were barely keeping their own heads above water, Mallus didn't have the luxury of getting his crew caught up in someone else's problems. "We'll check the other systems, you had it right from the start Walesh." he said, stepping out of the bridge. "call me if you find anything."

Inside his quarters, Mallus lay stretched out on his bed, bared to the waist. Head propped up on a specifically designed turian pillow, made to compensate for the metallic turian carapace. The turian homeworld, Palaven, had a weakened magnetosphere, which let in more solar radiation than most other worlds with life on them. Because of this all life on Palaven developed a metallic carapace functioning as natural radiation shielding, which resulted in an almost cylindrical torso with a wide brim at the top that the neck protruded from. The pillow was made to reach up and cradle the back of a turian neck without getting in the way of the sharp fringe that protruded off the back from the crown of the head, ending in three sharp, bony spikes.

Mallus stared at the roof of his cabin, the same size as the rest of the crew's, there wasn't enough room - or credits - for a lavish captain's quarters. UNSC...UNSC. Mallus sounded the initialism out in his mind. He had never heard of it before. They obviously had serious financial backing, ships that size are not cheap. It had been several years since Mallus had last been to the Citadel, even so, he thought he'd remember anyone capable of building something like that. Mallus pulled himself up, discarding the pillow so his back could rest upon the cool bulkhead. Mallus searched through the tangle of blankets for his datapad, an omni-tool was more useful, but more expensive, so only Zo and Kalia, The Repose's tech expert and engineer respectfully, got one. The datapad's orange holo-screen glow dull in his hands as Mallus tapped his newest inquiry into an extranet search engine. The first page of the inquiry show seventeen of thirtyeight and a half billion results, The most accurate of which being an article about a human man named Ulises Nathaniel Steven Corleone, and unless his vid rewinder idea is really taking off, the desiccated remains of that ship are not his.

"Captain, we've got something, looks like a Bloodpack wreck, an old one." Walesh's clipped tones came over the intercom.

Perfect. The Bloodpack mercenary group, made up almost entirely of krogan and vorcha, wasn't big on safety protocols, and often used ships without beacons or in disrepair. There was usually a lot of salvage. "Good, check for a tag. If it's clean send Zo over to claim it." Salvage crews used software and hardware tags to claim a find, they were designed to be impossible to remove, and most salvage stations wouldn't buy if your tags didn't match. Mallus never wanted to find himself so desperate that he was found breathing in a station that didn't check the tags.

Mallus quickly threw on the undergear for his hardsuit. They might be walking on the raggedy edge, but Captain Mal intended to make sure they kept sure footing.


End file.
